The God of Hope

Isaiah 11:1-10; Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3:1-12

There are two basic attitudes toward life--one of hope and one of dread--one of trust, the other of fear--one of optimism, the other of gloom.

A misprint of a weather forecast read like this: “There is a five percent chance of . . . today and tomorrow.” I would hope that the odds are better than that!

In a “Frank and Ernest” cartoon, you see Frank rousing slowly from his sleep, then looking out at the sun coming up. He says dryly, “Well, the sun is rising in the east . . . so far, so good.”

You may know that the great comedian W.C. Fields died with money in hundreds of bank accounts which were never located. Wherever he went he opened a bank account. Often he used fictitious names and kept no records whatsoever of his deposits.

At one point, Fields told a friend in confidence that he had over seven hundred accounts and knew exactly where they were. Unfortunately he died without telling anyone else the locations of those accounts or the name in which they were held. He had one account in Berlin that alone was said to have $50,000 in it. During the bombing of that city, however, all traces of that bank and the money were destroyed.

Fields attributed this strange behavior of storing money in all these cities to a dream he had repeatedly in which he saw himself stranded in a strange city without money or friends. The dread which this dream produced in Fields’ heart caused him to open these strange, anonymous accounts in every city in which he played. (1)

The great writer, Pirandello once told a story about a man filled with so much dread that it drove him mad. When he fell in love with the woman of his dreams, he pretended that he did not care about her. He was afraid that if he gave in to his feelings of love for her he would lose her. He kept up this display of disinterest so long that he nearly did lose her.

When he did finally ask her to marry him and she accepted, he nearly went crazy planning the honeymoon. He told everyone that they would be going to Florence and Venice. Instead he took his bride to Naples--in the opposite direction. This way he felt he could trick the misery he knew would be awaiting him in Florence and Venice. That was the only way he could enjoy the honeymoon in Naples. (2)

There are some people who live with such a feeling of dread and doom about their lives that they dismiss the possibility of joy. Even when life is being good to them, they just know that it cannot last. Somewhere--sometime--somehow--something out there is going to happen to them that will wreck their best-laid plans--that will frustrate their fondest dreams--that will crush everything they hold dear.

That is one attitude towards life. Fortunately, it is not the Christian attitude. It was not St. Paul’s attitude to be sure. St. Paul knew that we live in a difficult world. He had experienced more than his share of sorrow and suffering. But St. Paul knew that somewhere--sometime--somehow--something good was out there waiting for him. He knew that tomorrow would be a better day than today.

He believed that lasting joy and peace were not only possibilities in life but would someday be permanent realities. That is why he writes in Romans 15:13, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

This is the season of the year when we celebrate the God of hope. The mood of Advent is one of joyful anticipation. It infects all of society.

Some of you remember the 1970s. It was a very turbulent time in our society. There was a “Doonesbury” cartoon during those turbulent times that showed the campus radical Megaphone Mark falling off to sleep.

Above his head you could see this thoughts. “It’s Christmas Eve as a tired, disappointed and disillusioned student activist drops off to sleep.”

The next frame shows him sleeping. The frame after that shows him stirring as if startled by an unexplained noise.

In the final frame he explains, “I thought I heard reindeer.”

The joy of this season of the year was intruding even into the generally cynical Doonesbury cartoon strip.

The bells, the lights, all the sights and sounds of this special time of the year speak to us about hope. God is alive. Love and peace and good will are still possibilities. There is far more than a five percent chance of today and tomorrow. Because of a babe born 2,000 years ago in a little town called Bethlehem, hope came into our world--hope that is unquenchable and eternal.

There is a beautiful story back in the book of Genesis. Abraham, who is still called Abram at this point, is complaining to God that he has no heir to take over his house someday. The writer of the book of Genesis says that God brings Abram outside and says to him, “Look at the heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”

That is the call that God always gives to us in our times of doubt and despair. “Look at the heaven, and number the stars . . .”

During the Advent season, of course, we need look for only one star--a star that shines much brighter than all the rest. It is the star of Christmas, always the world’s greatest symbol of hope. “May the God of hope,” writes St. Paul, “fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Advent is, first of all, hope for the world. H.G. Wells once wrote a story titled “In the Days of the Comet.” Well’s story is a somewhat typical science fiction fantasy. A mysterious green vapor of unknown origin descends from the clouds and covers the earth. The vapor has the immediate effect of putting all the earth’s people into a deep sleep for three days.

When they finally awake, something amazing has happened. Their inner nature is radically transformed. Petty quarreling comes to an end. Instead of seeking fame, power and wealth the people of the world seek to serve one another. Love, kindness and generosity become more important than greed or success. In short, the perfect society emerges--a society in which the dignity of every human being is honored. (3)

The prophet Isaiah looked forward to that kind of day. He looked forward to a day when “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.” (11:6).

Of course, Isaiah was not anticipating a green vapor that would come down out of the clouds. He was prophesying “a shoot [that would come] from the stump of Jesse . . .” That is Isaiah’s way of saying that there was a Messiah coming, who would establish a new world order, who would bring into being a new kingdom in which love is more important than power and service is more important than domination.

John the Baptist saw himself as the herald of that Messiah--the one whose job was to prepare the way for the Messiah. The concern of the prophets, however, was not only one of personal salvation but also the salvation of Israel, and through Israel, the salvation of the world.

What good is it if we save the individual but leave him in a world that tramples upon his dignity and crushes his aspirations? We need to affirm that when the Messiah--the Christ--came into the world he brought with him the seed of a new kingdom--a kingdom that is still alive and still at work whenever the name of Jesus is on the lips of believers. It is a kingdom that has dispelled darkness, ignorance, exploitation and human slavery everywhere the good news is faithfully proclaimed. No tyrant can forever suppress it, no evil can forever resist its fury.

No wonder John spoke with such starkness of the wrath which was to come. The gates of hell itself cannot prevail against the kingdom which came into the world with the birth of the Christ child.

No wonder the angels sang in the heavens and wise men bowed in adoration. Phillip Brooks was right when he wrote of the events that occurred in the little town of Bethlehem: “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” Advent is hope, first of all for the world.

But Advent is also hope for us as individuals. Advent is hope for you and me.

In London during the Second World War, Hitler’s war planes were bombing that great city with regularity. In order to safeguard the children, trainloads of them were evacuated to the country. Somebody asked one young lad, “Where are you going?”

He thought for a minute and replied, “I don’t know, but the king knows.”

We are in the same situation. We don’t know what the future holds, but our king knows, he who is King of kings and Lord of lords. This is the season of the year when we are reminded that this is God’s world. He is at work in this world, and even though we may be surrounded by darkness, we know there is a light shining in the darkness that the darkness cannot overcome (John 1:5).

Even the prospect of death cannot dispel the believer’s sense of anticipation.

Damon Runyon once wrote a charming story about a man he called Doc Brackett. Doc Brackett was a beloved old physician whose office was open to the poor and needy. He would get up in the middle of the coldest night and ride twenty miles to doctor a sick woman or child or to patch up some fellow who got hurt.

Everybody in town knew Doc Brackett’s office over Rice’s clothing store. It was up a narrow flight of stairs. A sign at the foot of the stairs said: DR. BRACKETT, OFFICE UPSTAIRS.

Doc Brackett never married. The day he was supposed to marry he got a call to go out into the country and doctor a Mexican child. His bride-to-be was so angry that she cancelled the wedding, but the parents of the Mexican child were very grateful when the child recovered.

For forty years, the lame, the halt, and the blind of that town had climbed up and down the stairs to Doc Brackett’s office. He never turned anyone away.

Doc Brackett lived to be seventy years of age, and then one day he keeled over on the sofa in his office and died. He had one of the largest funerals ever in those parts. Everyone turned out. The town’s people wanted to erect a nice tombstone for his grave but could not agree what should be engraved on the stone. The matter dragged along and nothing was done.

Then one day someone noticed that there was already a proper epitaph over Dr. Brackett’s grave. The parent of the Mexican child that Doc Brackett had saved many years back had worried about him having no tombstone. They had no money to buy a marker, so they simply took the sign from the foot of the stairs at Doc Brackett’s office and stuck it over his grave. Now he had a fitting epitaph. It read simply, DR. BRACKETT, OFFICE UPSTAIRS.

During this season of the year we pay homage to the Doc Bracketts of this world and we declare that not only is the world a better place for their efforts but now they reside in a better place as well--Dr. Brackett, Office Upstairs. (4)

The God of Hope. You and I are free to choose the attitude with which we confront life. We can believe that there is a five per cent chance of today and tomorrow or we can believe the Good News of Christmas that God is alive and well and at work in our world bringing in a kingdom of love and justice and freedom. We can face the future with fear and foreboding, or we can trust in the God who has sustained us through the years and has promised us that He will never forget us nor forsake us regardless of our situation. We can choose to live in continued darkness, or we can step out into the light of hope and triumph and eternal victory. We can live for ourselves alone, or we can make the world a better place to live for all persons.

Doesn’t the Good News of Advent and Christmas change your attitude about life? Doesn’t it make you anticipate that sometime--somewhere--somehow--something good, not evil, is out there waiting to happen in your life? That is the kind of change that takes place when the Christ Child is born anew in our hearts.

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1. Joseph L. Felix, It’s Easier for a Rich Man to Enter Heaven (Nashville: Thomas Nelson).

2. Leo Buscaglia, Bus 9 to Paradise (Thorofare, NJ: Slack Incorporated).

3. Eric Butterworth, Unity of All Life (New York: Harper and Row).

4. Contributed. Source unknown.